Name: Tara Desmond Frutkin
From: Phoenix, Arizona
Votes: 0
Tara Frutkin
Paradise Valley
Community College/Northern Arizona University
BSN-Nursing
Easier
to Hate the Tree
How can one hate a
tree? It is a normal part of nature that sits beautifully beside
other trees along a suburban road. Well, unfortunately, I hate a
tree. My senior year of high school, four young women with bright
futures in front of them, slammed into the tree that I now loathe.
Three of them were instantly killed and the fourth is alive but with
diminished brain and motor function. She was supposed to go to an ivy
league school but now she scans cosmetics at the local drug store.
Now rationally, I know that the tree was not the cause of the
accident. The cause of the accident was four teenage girls, driving
too fast and distractedly. But, it is easier to be mad a tree rather
than the three dead classmates.
If there is a
silver lining to their accident, it is that it was a huge wake up
call to our high school and especially within my group of friends.
The power of the vehicle suddenly came into perspective and we all
slowed down. It was no longer cool to gun it out of the school
parking lot, or drag race our friends on the way to lunch. Designated
drivers were no longer a nice thought but rather a hard and fast
rule.
My friends and I
had all taken a private drivers ed class. But in our minds,
we were taking this class to lower our insurance premiums. Since then
though, as I drive along behind someone going thirty miles below the
speed limit in the far left hand lane, I cherish the knowledge I
gained from that drivers ed class. It goes back to the
timeless parental cliche that “it’s not you that I don’t trust,
it is the other drivers on the road”. So my takeaway is that if we
can get enough education into the hands of our young drivers, we are
really protecting the general public. One of the gems I learned from
that class besides the rules of the road was the advice to assume
that the other drivers on the road do not see you. Never make the
assumption that they will stop simply because there is a red light or
a stop sign. Defensive driving was a key lesson that I carry with me
to this day.
In my home state of
Arizona, they have taken a new approach to encouraging safe driving
and that is through the use of overhead highway signs. They use humor
to get drivers attention while bringing to light that we all need to
be a bit more careful. For example, around Christmas one of the signs
read “He knows if you’ve been bad or good. Speeding is bad”. We
all know we should not speed but that friendly message reminded us
that it is the holiday season, to be spent safely with our families
and to check our speed.
I have to say that
the car industry has gone miles in improving safer driving so
personally in getting a new car I have taken a big step in being a
safer driver. My new car has apple car play which has eliminated my
use of texting and driving. It also has safety features where if I
approach a car too quickly, it screams at me in warning. Aside from
getting a new car, I have learned to slow down. It is ok if I am a
little bit late or let someone into my lane that was obviously trying
to avoid traffic by cutting in at the last minute. I would rather be
late than dead.
So yes, I still
abhor the tree but I appreciate it as a daily reminder to slow down,
take a deep breath and pay attention because at the end of the day, I
am home with my family and Gretchen, Elizabeth and Katherine are not
and will never be.
